Berkshire power on at the top

Five-star Nugent stars in 222-run win over Wiltshire

Thu, 06 Jul 2017

Reporter:

Ralph Webb

Berkshire's Archie Carter hits out against Wiltshire at Falkland CC

Injury-hit Berkshire maintained their unbeaten run by defeating Wiltshire by 222 runs at Falkland this week.The reigning national champions, who have not lost a Unicorns Championship match for nearly three seasons, were in control for much of the game.They made 311 in their first innings with Andy Rishton hitting 93, Euan Woods 82 and Chris Peploe 60. They then bowled out their visitors for 171, Ollie Wilkin taking 4-47.On their return to the crease, Berkshire went on to score 288, so extending their lead to 428. Wilkin top-scored with 69, followed by Peploe with 66, Dan Lincoln (47), Joe Thomas (31) and 16-year-old Archie Carter (30) on his championship debut.Wiltshire were never really in the hunt after being reduced to 30-3 as their first three batsmen all fell to Tom Nugent in the same over.But they did offer some late resistance with Michael Reynolds and Tahir Afridi adding 73 for the seventh wicket, which fell at 202 with Nugent claiming his fourth victim of the innings by having Reynolds smartly caught by Rishton in the covers for 48.Afridi, on 42, was caught behind by Henley team-mate Stewart Davison off Chris Peploe and it wasn’t long before the two bowlers cleaned up the tail, with Wiltshire being all out for 205.Nugent finished with 5-48 off 16.1 overs, while Peploe took 4-88 off 23 overs.Overall, it was another excellent all-round performance by the champions, skippered by Davison for the first time, particularly as they were missing James Morris, Richard Morris and Waqas Hussain.For the Wiltshire second innings, another absentee was Wilkin, who suffered an elbow injury while batting when he was accidentally struck by a ball thrown from Wiltshire skipper Ed Young.Wilkin and Richard Morris, who had sustained a leg injury while playing for Henley on Saturday, must both be considered doubtful for Sunday's Unicorns Trophy semi-final away to Staffordshire, but skipper James Morris and Hussain are available.Berkshire 1st innings: 311 (Rishton 93, Woods 83, Peploe 60; Afridi 4-58).Wiltshire 1st innings: 172 (Clark 46; Wilkin 4-47).Berkshire 2nd innings: 288 (Wilkin 69, Peploe 66, Lincoln 47; King 6-81).Wiltshire 2nd innings: 205 (Reynolds 48, Afridi 42, Clark 40; Nugent 5-48, Peploe 4-88).